ORIGIN, AS TRACED BY THE LANGUAGE. 
185 
possessed of it. The account he received was, that some 
years before a great storm threw down a large tree, and dis¬ 
closed this old bell under its roots, and that they had constantly 
used it as a pot to boil their potatoes in, stopping up a hole 
where the ring of the clapper had been fixed with a potatoe. 
The bell was immediately purchased, and I had the gratification 
of seeing it; the rim was jagged, as if the outer one had been 
broken off, which was most probably the case, as it appeared 
to be far too shallow for its width : there was a legend round 
it, which appeared to be Japanese, the characters being too 
square and regular for Chinese. 
There is, therefore, good reason to suppose, that at least 
one junk, if not more, has reached New Zealand, and imparted 
a character to their race, as well as an influence to their 
customs. That the neighbouring tribes would endeavour to 
obtain the alliance of a more civilized people than themselves, 
and secure them to strengthen their tribes by giving them their 
daughters in marriage seems highly probable. These strangers, 
too, may have introduced some articles of food as well as their 
customs, and thus proved a blessing to them. It is a question 
whether they did not introduce the art of weaving, which seems 
to be carried to greater perfection than we could reasonably 
expect them to have been capable of. I am not aware that either 
in Tahaiti or Hawaii they had attained to a similar degree. The 
general clothing of the islands being the tapatapa, cloth made 
from the bark of trees, chiefly the wau (or paper mulberry), and 
though the making of that cloth has long ceased, yet tradi¬ 
tionally, it was once made in New Zealand. The name is 
preserved in the ante , from which ribbons were formed, even 
up to a late period ; but the cloth itself appears to have been 
superseded by the more durable and elegant product of the 
loom. The finely embroidered borders of their garments 
betoken a far more advanced state than they can lay claim to 
in the other arts, which they are acquainted with. Their houses 
likewise seem to betoken a Chinese or Japanese origin; 
they are built in a similar way to those which are erected of 
bamboo, being ornamented with arapaki, or lattice work of 
various colors and patterns, indicating much skill and even 
